How Milwaukee talked the Democrats into bringing the 2020 national convention to the city

Fiserv Forum will be the centerpiece of Milwaukee's 2020 Democratic National Convention.(Photo: Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

You could easily sell this as a Cinderella story, how Milwaukee outflanked Houston and Miami and grabbed one of the biggest political shows in the world.

But to those who brought the 2020 Democratic National Convention to Milwaukee, there was nothing little about the city, the bid or the stakes.

"I don't like to think of us as any sort of underdog, some David versus Goliath matchup," said Alex Lasry, the bid committee chair who is a Milwaukee Bucks executive. "This was Milwaukee outing itself as a top city in the country. It was Milwaukee showing everyone what it is we see when we live here, what we believe."

It was a big lift that played out over a year and a half of planning, showing off facilities and even nailing down commitments for hotel rooms, with Mayor Tom Barrett's chief of staff at one point quipping that he felt like he worked for Hotels.com.

Alex Lasry, chair of Milwaukee's bid for the 2020 Democratic National Convention, spoke Wednesday at Milwaukee Urban League headquarters during a business information session.(Photo: Bill Glauber)

They got $11 million in fundraising commitments. They cobbled together a $10 million line of credit that would be used only as a backstop, with a $7.5 million promise from a still unknown donor and another $2.5 million promise from unions.

In addition, about $750,000 was raised from Milwaukee's corporate community to cover expenses through the bid process.

And on Monday, it all came together when Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez came to Milwaukee to announce the official selection and sign a contract that became soaked in beer.

Long road to the convention

So, how did we get here?

An idea to host a convention had percolated among some political insiders in the community long before.

But after President Donald Trump's stunning victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016, a victory that was partially made in Wisconsin, the question became: Why not Milwaukee?

Everyone has their piece of this story.

For Barrett, the dream was harbored over six trips to conventions, beginning in Chicago in 1996.

"Of course, I’ve always thought how exciting it would be to host a convention in Milwaukee," he said. Barrett and others even teased out the possibility of bidding on the Democrats' 2016 convention.

"The two issues, of course, were hotels and the arena," Barrett said.

No bid was made.

For Lasry, the idea of going after such a big event began at the Democratic convention in 2016 in Philadelphia, when he almost jokingly said how cool it would be to have a convention in Milwaukee's new arena that was just under construction.

Bid takes shape

Things began to move in earnest in 2017, with emails passed back and forth, conversations held and a formal meeting taking place.

Among those to attend were Barrett, Lasry and political operatives Mike Tate, Jason Rae, Thad Nation, Patrick Guarasci, Democratic Party of Wisconsin chair Martha Laning and Paul Vornholt, who would become Barrett's chief of staff.

There were also representatives from the offices of Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore of Milwaukee.

"Alex stepped forward and said he wanted to raise money for the bid committee," Barrett said. "And I thought, great, that would be wonderful. So that was really the start of it for this round."

In October 2017, the organizing committee quietly registered as The Good Land Committee, an homage to Alice Cooper's quirky Milwaukee history as recited in the film Wayne's World.

In February 2018, at a news conference in the City Hall rotunda, organizers unveiled their bid.

In June 2018, Barrett submitted the formal proposal to Perez and the Democrats, highlighting facilities, hotel rooms and the idea that a convention here "will bring the fight for the American people into the heart of the Battleground Midwest."

Site selection visit

The race was on. Four finalists were picked. Denver dropped out and Milwaukee went up against Houston and Miami.

A key moment was a site selection visit by a Democratic technical committee. It took place in August 2018, just after the completion of Fiserv Forum. The visit to the gleaming new facility apparently made an impression. So did the compact convention footprint and the ability to transform space outside the arena.

"The site visit I think is what launched us into being actually competitive and not one of the fringe finalists," Lasry said. "We showed we can pull something like this off."

A visit to the new Northwestern Mutual headquarters, attended by more than 200 business and community leaders, showed the depth and breadth of support for the bid.

Lasry said he knew the local committee had to take on two big issues: the number of hotels and money.

Fifteen thousand rooms were needed within a 20-minute drive of the main venue. Milwaukee made the cut. But throughout the campaign, the city had to push back that it didn't have enough rooms to accommodate up to 50,000 people that can converge on a convention city.

Senior Vice President for the Milwaukee Bucks Alex Lasry explains how the city's bid for the Democratic National Convention made it a finalist.
WisconsinEye

Securing hotel rooms

The chase for hotel rooms went right up until the end, especially when the committee had to deal with blocks of reservations made by media outlets and others, which cut into inventory.

Barrett said: "One of the valleys was one of the weeks when we just had to really put our foot on the pedal for hotel rooms, to the point where my chief of staff here said one day, ‘I feel like I’m working at Hotels.com.' "

Milwaukee also had to show it could raise cash. There were two tracks. Raising hard dollars for the convention and coming up with the line of credit in case fundraising targets weren't met.

It was Barrett who did much of the heavy lifting on the line of credit. He got the anonymous donor to the table and later labor organizations followed.

Lasry helped tap into large donors.

His father, Marc Lasry, and another principal owner of the Milwaukee Bucks, Jamie Dinan, were among those who attended a private dinner with the site selection committee last summer. Mark Attanasio, Milwaukee Brewers principal owner, also attended the dinner, said a source close to the organizing committee.

The message was unmistakable: Milwaukee had the wherewithal to raise up to $70 million for the convention.

Contract negotiation

Even with all the pieces in place, negotiations went on for months as the DNC hammered out contracts with all three cities.

"I would say down the stretch, all three were in contention," said Sam Cornale, the DNC's deputy chief executive officer.

Initially, Democrats wanted to have a decision by the end of February. The deadline slipped and the race went into overtime.

"This is ultimately a holistic decision," Cornale said. "No one factor, in particular, put any one of the bids ahead of any of the others. We really viewed this as a large decision about the values we wanted to articulate and the stories we wanted to tell on what it means to be a Democrat in this age."

The Democrats were headed to the Midwest.

On Sunday, there were whispers that Milwaukee was going to get the convention. On Monday, it became official.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett receives the call from the Democratic National Committee with the news that Milwaukee has been chosen to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention.(Photo: Courtesy of Mayor's Office)

Barrett had just finished his State of the City address and was about to take questions from a group of reporters when members of his staff suddenly led him away from the gaggle. He was soon standing near the large windows of Fiserv Forum talking on a cell phone.

"That was me. That was me," Perez said. "I didn't want to steal his thunder for his State of the City, so I called him afterward to tell him that we had chosen Milwaukee and that we were looking forward to moving to the next chapter of this partnership."